//^jT 


Advertising  Makes 
Mission  Work  Easy 

Prepares  the  Minds  of  the  Natives  to 
Receive  the  Teachings  of  the  Bible 


By 

Edith  Wilds 


Issued  by 

The  Association  for  Newspaper  Evangelism 
25  East  Twenty-second  Street 
New  York 


Reprinted  from  the  Japan  Advertiser  of  August  22,  1918. 


ADVERTISING  MAKES 
WORK  EASY. 


MISSION 


Prepares  the  Minds  of  the  Natives  to  Receive 
the  Teachings  of  the  Bible 

(By  Edith  Wilds) 

all  Evangelism  that  prayed  and  sang 

psalms  to  a few  benighted  heathen  has 
gone  and  in  its  place  is  Evangelism 
organized — a business  that  sends  out  the 
Gospel  with  the  morning  paper,  so  that  the 
Japanese  husband  in  hithermost  hut  may 
absorb  spirituality  with  his  morning  rice. 

The  Rev.  Albertus  Pieters  is  a business 
man  by  instinct  and  an  evangelist  by  inclina- 
tion and  training.  Therefore  he  thinks  spirit- 
ually in  business  terms.  When  he  found  him- 
self preaching  to  only  fifteen  or  twenty  peo- 
ple every  Sunday,  he  decided  it  wasn’t  good 
business  and  something  must  be  done.  So  he 
canvassed  the  district  and  left  written  notices 
of  the  meetings  at  every  door.  That  worked 
for  a time  and  then  the  novelty  wore  off.  He 
had  a church,  he  hired  a good  Japanese 
preacher  but  the  people  simply  would  not 
come.  How  to  make  them  come  for  the 
goods  was  a question  that  tormented  him  night 
and  day.  He  reasoned  that  his  business  had 
fundamentally  the  same  problem  as  any  big 
business,  and  success  rested  upon  four  prin- 
ciples: a demand  rooted  deep  in  the  require- 
ments of  human  nature;  then  an  article  of 
good  quality  to  supply  that  demand;  then  a 
distributing  medium  to  make  that  article  easy 


of  access,  and  finally  a knowledge  on  the 
part  of  the  public  at  large  of  their  need  of 
the  article  and  of  the  places  where  it  may 
be  obtained.  Given  these  things  Mr.  Pieters 
realized  that  the  rest  is  easy;  that  salesman- 
ship becomes  nothing  more  than  handling 
things  over  the  counter. 

Well,  Evangelism  had  the  deepest,  the 
greatest,  the  permanent  need  of  humanity — 
the  need  of  the  knowledge  of  God.  It  had  an 
article  of  first  class  merit  to  supply  the  need 
— the  Gospel  of  Christ.  And  that  article 
was  manufactured  in  a form  in  which  the 
Japanese  could  use  it,  and  there  were  the  local 
churches  and  preaching  places  as  local  dis- 
tributing centers,  the  spiritual  equivalent  to 
the  corner  grocery  store,  where  the  people  get 
the  article.  There  was  everything  but  the 
demand.  The  Japanese  people  were  not  con- 
scious of  their  need  of  the  Gospel,  some  did 
not  know  that  the  Gospel  existed;  therefore. 
Evangelism  was  doing  a small  business.  What 
ought  to  be  done?  Why,  precisely,  what  is 
done  in  any  big  business.  Advertise. 

At  this  point  Mr.  Pieters  went  to  America 
on  furlough.  He  put  his  proposition  up  to 
business  men.  They  jumped  at  it  like  a fish 
after  bait.  They  saw  at  once  that  if  they 
were  putting  a million  dollars  a year  into  mis- 
sionary effort  in  Japan,  it  would  be  a good 
thing  to  put  a thousand  into  it  for  advertising 
the  business. 

So  Mr.  Pieters  came  back  to  Japan  with 
a thousand  dollars  in  his  pocket  and  a full 
fledged  scheme  in  his  head.  The  more  diffi- 
cult the  proposition,  the  better  he  likes  it,  so 
he  selected  as  his  field  Oita  Ken,  one  of  the 


most  difficult  Provinces  to  Christianize  in  all 
Japan.  It  was  here  that  the  Roman  Catholics 
worked  a century  or  so  ago  and  it  was  here 
that  they  were  stamped  out  in  blood.  The 
result  is  that  the  people  in  this  district  have  a 
traditional  horror  of  everything  Christian.  It 
is  well  within  the  memory  of  the  older  people 
when  every  household  had  to  send  to  the 
Government  a written  notification  at  the  end 
of  each  month  certifying  that  there  was  no 
Christianity  in' his  family;  when  at  the  end  of 
the  year  the  head  man  of  the  village  had  to 
send  in  a similar  certificate  to  the  head  gov- 
ernors; when  once  in  ten  years  all  the  in- 
habitants, down  to  the  very  children  in  arms, 
were  assembled  to  defile  the  cross  as  an  evi- 
dence that  they  had  no  secret  leanings  toward 
Christianity.  This  method  being  kept  up 
strictly  for  a century  or  so  has  resulted  in  a 
settled  conviction  down  to  the  lowest  peasant 
that  there  is  nothing  in  the  world  so  much  to 
be  despised  as  Christianity.  Mr.  Pieters  saw 
his  opportunity  right  here.  He  would  get  this 
people  so  accustomed  to  think  and  talk  of 
Christ  that  they  would  become  Christians  be- 
fore they  knew  it. 

He  asked  the  proprietors  of  the  paper  that 
had  the  largest  circulation  if  they  would  have 
any  objection  to  his  putting  in  a column  or  a 
column  and  a half  of  Christian  doctrine.  They 
replied  that  if  he  paid  for  the  space  he  might 
put  in  any  old  thing  he  liked  so  long  as  it  did 
not  violate  the  rules  of  the  police  on  the 
subject  of  obscene  literature.  So  he  made  a 
contract  with  this  paper  at  $2.50  a column  for 
one  insertion.  Sometimes,  when  a reader  com- 
plains about  the  amount  of  Christian  material. 


they  mark  the  article  Advertisement,  generally 
not. 

Again  following  business  methods,  he  made 
his  articles  as  popular  as  possible  with  catchy 
headlines.  A column  on  the  Existence  of  the 
Creator  bore  the  heading:  “Which  was  First 
— the  Hen  or  the  Egg?”;  another  on  Family 
Relations  was  headed:  “The  Woman  Prob- 
lem.” Sometimes  they  are  based  on  current 
topics.  One  that  attracted  a great  deal  of 
attention  was  on  the  sinking  of  the  Titanic  and 
the  singing  of  the  Christian  hymn  by  the  pas- 
sengers. At  the  end  of  the  article  there  is 
always  an  invitation  to  any  person  interested 
to  send  his  name  and  address  to  headquarters 
with  the  promise  that  literature  will  be  sent 
him  free  of  charge.  The  average  number  of 
replies  for  the  last  five  years  is  three  a day. 
Some  are  written  from  curiosity;  many  are 
from  school  boys.  But  people  having  mere 
curiosity  may  get  interested,  and  school  boys 
have  a habit  of  growing  up,  so  no  letter  is  left 
unanswered.  When  people  become  much  in- 
terested, two  tracts  are  sent  to  them  which 
carefully  explain  what  it  means  to  be  a 
Christian  and  why  a person  who  believes  in 
Christ  should  receive  Baptism  and  be  con- 
nected with  some  Church.  In  these  tracts 
there  is  a printed  form  for  application  for 
baptism. 

One  thing  remains  to  complete  the  method 
— and  that  is  to  organize  the  believers  into 
little  societies  which  will  in  time  develop  into 
an  organized  church  life.  To  these  societies 
are  sent  once  a week  a complete  Christian 
service  in  printed  form,  indicating  the  hymns 
to  be  sung,  the  passages  of  Scripture  to  be 


read,  the  prayers  to  be  offered,  the  text  of  a 
sermon  and  the  full  sermon.  After  a certain 
probation  time,  the  society  is  organized  into 
a church  and  turned  over  to  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities. 

Sometime  ago  a letter  was  addressed  merely 
“Headquarters  Christianity,  Oita  City,”  and 
although  there  are  several  churches  and  mis- 
sionaries in  the  town,  the  postoffice  promptly 
delivered  it  to  Mr.  Pieters’  office — all  of 
which  shows  the  value  of  advertising. 

And  of  the  customers  who  seek  this  product 
of  Christianity,  there  are  some  amusing  and 
some  pathetic  tales.  One  day  there  appeared 
in  the  office  a man  and  his  wife  who  said  they 
wished  to  become  Christians.  It  turned  out 
upon  investigation  that  they  were  farming  peo- 
ple from  a remote  country  district.  One  of 
their  relatives  had  been  very  sick  and  every 
form  of  magic  accessible  to  them  had  been 
tried.  When  all  failed,  they  somehow  got 
the  idea  that  it  would  be  a good  thing  to  pray 
to  that  True  God  who  was  advertised  in  the 
papers.  They  did  not  know  exactly  how  or 
where  to  pray,  but  since  he  was  called  The 
God  of  Heaven,  they  stood  under  the  sky, 
gazed  at  the  stars  and  prayed  for  the  health  of 
their  relative.  They  made  a vow  that  if  the 
prayer  were  heard  they  would  make  a pil- 
grimage to  God’s  Pleadquarters  in  Oita,  and 
worship  him  there.  The  relative  recovered  and 
according  to  their  vow  they  came  to  Head- 
quarters. But  they  were  much  mystified.  This 
place  did  not  look  in  the  least  like  a Temple 
or  any  place  where  a man  might  worship. 
They  were  disappointed,  and  returned  home. 
However  an  evangelist  called  upon  them  and 


after  about  six  months’  instruction  they  both 
were  baptised  and  became  Christians. 

In  the  same  district  as  these  people  there 
lived  a blacksmith,  very  poor,  very  dissolute, 
especially  given  to  drunkenness.  He  saw  the 
advertisement,  got  some  literature,  was  visited 
by  a traveling  evangelist  and  soundly  con- 
verted. When  he  applied  for  baptism,  an  ap- 
plication came  also  from  his  wife.  When  Mr. 
Pieters  went  up  to  examine  them  for  baptism, 
he  found  that  the  man  had  a fair  knowledge 
of  Christianity  but  the  woman  could  not  even 
read,  had  no  idea  who  Jesus  Christ  was,  where 
he  had  lived,  how  he  had  died  or  any  other 
essential  thing. 

“You  have  asked  to  become  a Christian,  to 
receive  baptism,  but  you  do  not  seem  to  know 
very  much  about  Christ,”  said  Mr.  Pieters. 

She  answered:  “It  is  quite  true  that  I do 
not  know  anything  about  the  Christian  doctrine 
but  I know  a good  deal  about  my  husband. 
He  was  a terrible  man ; he  would  get  drunk 
almost  every  other  day,  and  used  to  cuff  me 
and  the  boy  about;  we  were  always  in  trouble 
and  this  home  was  a hell  on  earth.  About 
three  months  ago  he  noticed  your  advertise- 
ment in  the  paper,  got  ycur  books,  and  now 
he  is  altogether  a different  man.  He  never 
drinks,  never  beats  me  nor  the  boy  and  has 
become  as  gentle  as  a kitten.  I don’t  know 
anything  about  Christianity,  but  I know  it  is 
a good  thing  and  I want  to  become  a Christ- 
ian.” Not  a sufficient  testimony  to  be  bap- 
tised on,  but  after  instruction  she  was  able  to 
receive  baptism.  Some  months  later  Mr. 
Pieters  had  a curious  letter  from  the  man  him- 
self. He  felt  quite  elated  over  the  great 


victory  which  he  had  experienced.  A cus- 
tomer had  come  to  his  shop  and  after  transact- 
ing his  business  had  forgotten  a purse  contain- 
ing fifty  dollars.  He  wrote:  “If  that  had 
happened  some  months  ago  I should  certainly 
have  stolen  that  fifty  dollars,  but  as  it  was  I 
took  good  care  of  it  and  gave  it  back  to  him, 
with  the  money  intact.  Please  put  this  in  the 
papers  as  an  example  of  what  Christianity 
will  do.” 

This  work  has  been  going  on  now  for  five 
years  and  today  Oita  Ken  can  fairly  claim 
to  be  the  best  evangelized  portion  of  the 
Japanese  Empire,  since  an  average  of  twenty 
families  in  each  Township  possess  all  the  in- 
formation necessary  to  become  Christians. 

A certain  brand  of  cigarettes  is  advertised 
in  every  city  and  town  in  Japan.  It  is  the 
most  popular  brand  of  cigarettes  in  the  country, 
not  because  of  its  superior  quality  but  because 
it  is  backed  by  American  capital  which  has 
brought  it  to  the  attention  of  the  smoking  pub- 
lic by  prodigious  advertising.  A Japanese 
Christian  statesman,  pointing  one  day  to  this 
advertisement,  remarked:  “If  America  would 
put  as  much  capital  into  the  advertising  of 
Christianity  as  they  put  into  the  advertising 
of  that  cigarette  they  would  have  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  every  hamlet  of  this  Empire 
within  five  years.” 


